Friday, June 29, 2012

In talking to young people
about preparing for the future, I’ve had several say something like this: “We
must get into the world to experience ungodly situations and ungodly people in
order to grow stronger.”

This kind of thinking has
swallowed up many immature Christians and eventually turned them against God.
Sure, we’re in the world (John 17:15) and we’re exposed to non-Christian
situations (school, job, neighborhood), but we need to be careful that exposure
to those situations does not lead to embracing ungodly philosophies. All
of us would mature faster by following the divine pattern suggested in Psalm
1:1.

a.First, let’s not let our decisions and choices be controlled by the “counsel of the
ungodly.”

Proverbs
11:14 “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of
counselors there is safety.”

Proverbs
19:20-21“Listen to advice and
accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future. Many are the plans
in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord
that will stand. “

b.Second, we shouldn’t put ourselves in a place where
those who don’t know Jesus can unduly
influence our thought processes.

1 John 3:4-10 “Everyone who
makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You
know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has
either seen him or known him.

Little children, let no one
deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been
sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy
the works of the devil.

No one born of God makes a
practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning
because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of
God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice
righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

c.Third, let’s avoid getting comfortable with those who mock God, His Word, and His role
in our life so that their thinking seems right to us.

Proverbs
25:26 “Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who
gives way before the wicked.”

James
4:17 “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it
is sin.”

Counsel from such sources
leads us away from God. Instead, it’s best to get our training, our guidance,
and our advice from God’s holy Word and those who know it and love it. God and
His Word, not experiences, are our best teacher.